Long, long ago (and pretty much still do), I dreamed of becoming a great author. I saw myself hunched over a typewriter, spitting out page after page of a best-selling novel. If it was historical, that much better as history, research and English were my favorite subjects. Yes, I could see my name on the New York Times Best Seller’s List as a renowned novelist … with my heroes Arthur Conan Doyle, James Michener, Alexandre Dumas, Margaret Mitchell, Lew Wallace …. Wait a minute, Lew, who?
Don’t worry, most people don’t know Lewis Wallace, but you do know his work: Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. I didn’t read the book until I had seen the movie, with a second version released last week. It’s a epic story of forgiveness and redemption. However, the best part is the story behind the story.
Lew Wallace (April 10, 1827 – February 15, 1905) was an American lawyer, Union general in the American Civil War, governor of the New Mexico Territory, politician, diplomat, and author from Indiana. Wallace is best known for Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880), which became a bestselling novel that has been called “the most influential Christian book of the nineteenth century,” surpassing Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Wallace cited one inspiration for his work, recounting his life-changing journey and talk with Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, a well-known agnostic and public speaker, whom he met on a train as the two were bound for Indianapolis in 1876. Ingersoll invited Wallace to join him in his railroad compartment during the trip, where the two debated religious ideology, and Wallace left the discussion realizing how little he knew about Christianity. Wallace then became determined to do his own research to write about the history of Christ. He explained: “I was ashamed of myself, and make haste now to declare that the mortification of pride I then endured… ended in a resolution to study the whole matter, if only for the gratification there might be in having convictions of one kind or another.” Researching and writing about Christianity helped Wallace become clear about his own ideas and beliefs. He developed the novel from his own exploration of the subject and his study of Scripture.
The story behind the story is the irony that such a renowned biblical novel that would rival the Bible in popularity during 1870-1900 was inspired after a conversation with a noted agnostic and written by an author who showed little interest in heavenly matters. The public asked about Wallace’s faith, to which he claimed that when he began writing Ben-Hur, he was not “in the least influenced by religious sentiment” and “had no convictions about God or Christ”, but he was fascinated by the biblical story of the three Magi’s journey to find Jesus, king of the Jews. After extensive studies of the Bible and the Holy Land, and well before he had completed the novel, Wallace became a believer in God and Christ. In his autobiography Wallace acknowledged: In the very beginning, before distractions overtake me, I wish to say that I believe absolutely in the Christian conception of God.
This is a reminder of the best story of all … if we seek HIM, HE will be found. The heavens are telling the glory of God. So we can seek him through that. He reveals Himself in his Word. So we can seek Him through that. He shows Himself to us in the evidences of grace in other people. So we can seek Him through that.
Thank you, Lord, for never forsaking us.
Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Tagged: American history, forgiveness
